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BBWAA Awards finalists announced; Kevin Cash named as an MOY finalist in the AL

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For the third consecutive year, Kevin Cash has been recognized as a finalist for the BBWAA AL Manager of the year.

On Monday, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) announced the three finalists for each of the 2020 BBWAA Awards representing each league for the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young, and Most Valuable Player awards. And for the third consecutive year, Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash has been recognized as a finalist for the AL Manager of the year.

The schedule for the awards follows, while the MLB Network will exclusively televise the live announcements of the winners of each award during BBWAA Awards Week from November 9-12.

The complete list of award finalists is below.

AL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year:

  • Cristian Javier (Houston Astros), Kyle Lewis (Seattle Mariners), Luis Robert (Chicago White Sox)

NL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year:

  • Alec Bohm (Philadelphia Phillies), Jake Cronenworth (San Diego Padres), Devin Williams (Milwaukee Brewers)

AL Manager of the Year:

  • Kevin Cash (Tampa Bay Rays), Charlie Montoyo (Toronto Blue Jays), Rick Renteria (Chicago White Sox)

NL Manager of the Year:

  • Don Mattingly (Miami Marlins), David Ross (Chicago Cubs), Jayce Tingler (San Diego Padres)

AL Cy Young Award:

  • Shane Bieber (Cleveland Indians), Kenta Maeda (Minnesota Twins), Hyun Jin Ryu (Toronto Blue Jays)

NL Cy Young Award:

  • Trevor Bauer (Cincinnati Reds), Yu Darvish (Chicago Cubs), Jacob deGrom (New York Mets)

AL Most Valuable Player:

  • José Abreu (Chicago White Sox), DJ LeMahieu (New York Yankees), José Ramírez (Cleveland Indians)

NL Most Valuable Player:

  • Mookie Betts (Los Angeles Dodgers), Freddie Freeman (Atlanta Braves), Manny Machado (San Diego Padres)

Cash was nominated for the Manager of the Year award in each of the last two seasons, yet he finished third after leading Tampa Bay to consecutive 90+ win seasons in 2018 (90) and 2019 (96 and a playoff berth). Votes are made by the national BBWAA writers at the end of the regular season.

This season, Cash led the Rays to the best record in the American League, while they won the AL East for just the third time in franchise history. At 40-20 on the season, it was just the second time Tampa Bay had the best mark in the AL in spite of season-ending injuries to six pitchers, and more than a dozen injured list stints overall, not to mention six other players that were shelved during the regular season or summer camp due to COVID-19.

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Rays opt not to exercise club options with Morton and Zunino, although both are open to returning

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The Tampa Bay Rays declined Charlie Morton’s option on Saturday.

On Friday, the Tampa Bay Rays chose not to exercise the club options on right-handed-hurler Charlie Morton and catcher Mike Zunino. Morton’s option was valued at $15-million, while Zunino stood to make $4.5-million if his option was to be exercised. Both are now free agents.

Charlie Morton “wasn’t surprised” that Tampa Bay declined to exercise the club option, given the lack of certainty in the midst of the pandemic, however, the team’s Senior VP/GM Erik Neander left the door open for Morton — as well as Zunino — to be part of the 2021 club. The veteran right-hander told the Tampa Bay Times that the team’s decision doesn’t mean they won’t try to work something out. 

If there’s mutual interest, the next step is gauging what that looks like.

— Charlie Morton

Neander noted the Rays’ desire to bring Morton back for a third season, and that they are looking for a “creative” way to keep him in the fold, including an incentive-laden deal. Per Neil Solondz (Rays Radio), Neander didn’t want to be too revealing about the conversation with Morton and said they didn’t get into too many specifics.

If he still wants to play next year and things line up in a way where it could be here and he sees it that way, we’re going to do everything we can to make that happen and to be as creative and supportive to his considerations and needs and what’s most important to him and his family as we can be.

…Charlie’s been very open about the uncertainty in his future and where he’s at. Frankly, felt it’s best to let him catch his breath, let him process, let him make some decisions with his family and to have those conversations but to give this a little more time to play out and see where things go. Would love nothing more than to have Charlie back and to have him part of our club next year and we’ll have a little more time to do that, it won’t be by way of picking up the option itself.

— Erik Neander

Morton is now one of the best pitchers on the free-agent market, although it is uncertain how much interest he will have exploring deals with other teams. He makes his home in Bradenton, a key point in his decision to sign with Tampa Bay after the 2018 season. During the postseason, Morton said he would discuss the possibility of retirement with his family if Tampa Bay declined his option, although if what is written above speaks to anything, he wants to continue his career with Tampa Bay.

During a Zoom call with the media, Neander also made mention of Morton and Zunino’s impact on the roster over the past two seasons in a number of ways.

He’s wonderful. And made sure he knew just how much we appreciated not only his on-field contributions the last two years, but everything he did to advance our group culturally, his leadership and guidance for pitchers, second to none.

…The intangible benefits of him for this staff, and the work he did behind the plate were a huge reason for our success as well, and another nice conversation and a door that’s going to stay open.

— Erik Neander

With a roster deadline looming to reinstate players currently on the 60-day Injured List, the Rays also made a variety of moves on Friday which will clear room on the 40-man. Tampa Bay lost catcher Michael Perez on waivers to the Pirates, as well as right-handers Andrew Kittredge and Chaz Roe, and catcher Kevan Smith — all of whom became free agents after clearing waivers.

It would appear the Rays are set to completely revamp their catching mix this offseason.

With the seven moves (including Aaron Loup becoming a free agent) the Rays now have 35 players on the 40-man roster.

Yet, as Solondz notes, Jalen Beeks, Yonny Chirinos, Colin Poche, and Cody Reed, all on the 60-day injured list, need to come off that list and be formally added on Sunday.

To that end, the Rays are expected to add prospects OF Josh Lowe and INF Taylor Walls to the 40-man roster by the November 20th deadline (so they won’t be exposed to the Rule 5 draft), so they will need to make another move in the near future to make room for both.

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This is the end, beautiful friend, the end

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Blake Snell looked like 2018 Snellzilla on Tuesday, but, sadly, that wasn’t enough to keep him in the game. (Photo Credit: Tampa Bay Rays)

Put a fork in a light socket it, the 2020 season has come to pass after a 3-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers — capping a 32-year World Series title drought in Chavez Ravine. They truly earned it.

Good hitters take advantage of pitcher’s mistakes, and Los Angeles proved that throughout the 2020 World Series. Tampa Bay is a good team whose bats started to go cold 1-1/2 months ago, culminating in a combined 1 R/5 H/2 BB/16 K/0-for-4 wRISP night and conclusion to the season. Good pitching defeats good hitting, and, well … the Dodgers outpitched the Rays.

Before I move on, I would like to touch on Kevin Cash’s contentious decision to pull Blake Snell from the game after 5-1/3 shutout innings. I do not think it was the right call, and I’m not certain that Cash will ever be able to convince me, Rays fans en masse, or his players, otherwise. Snell has believed in his team all season, and it’s rather depressing that his manager didn’t believe in his ability to pitch to batters a third time through the order. BUT, solely placing the blame for the loss on Cash would be rash and irrational at best. After all, the Dodgers averaged six runs per game during the regular season, didn’t win any walk-offs run until late into the truncated season, or fare as well during close games like the Rays because they consistently bludgeoned their opponents. What’s more, they hadn’t been shutout all season.

This is what happens when you pair Moneyball decision making with resources 10-times greater than that of the Rays. I digress.

Snell was pulled after having thrown 73 pitches. And true, he was pitching very well, however, at an average of almost 14 pitches per inning, he was likely to go one, maybe two more innings at best before Cash called upon The Stable, which really didn’t live up to its billing during the postseason — Ryan Thompson precluded. That is, even if Snell threw a shutout throughout an extended outing, all bets would be off once the relief corps took over. The loss ultimately rests on the shoulders of the skipper and Tampa Bay’s offense. After all, an old saying applies, “You can’t win games when you don’t score runs.” Consider that the non-Randy Arozarena part of the lineup went 3-23 with a pair of singles, two walks, and 15 punch-outs.

At the end of the day, Tampa Bay rode the pitching staff all season long, but especially in the second half when the offense began to fall off — from the 10th series on (see: the graphs above). The postseason only magnified the Rays’ offensive malaise.

It has been a long night preceded by a long day, which, itself, had been preceded by many long weeks and months. I am tired and fading fast. But, I will leave you with a few thoughts I tweeted earlier.

This year has been a dumpster fire. The pandemic and the political strife that has put all of us within a certain economic bracket in an unfortunate and uncertain position. The Rays, however, have been a bright spot over the last three months. They were the David to the Goliath’s — the Yankees and the Astros — throughout the regular season and the postseason. The 2020 Rays played like a “next man up” scrappy ball club in spite of numerous injuries and challenges. To paraphrase DeWayne Staats, while I didn’t enjoy tonight’s outcome, I truly enjoyed the ride. The Rays proved to the baseball world that they are a team that deserves to be noticed. Sure, there is some retooling that needs to be done during the winter, but as Dave Wills said during the radio-side of tonight’s broadcast, this team isn’t going anywhere. They have a young, exciting, and solid core of big-league players, and a farm system filled to the brim with talented players. And while I am sad things ended on a dour note, I’m also ecstatic that OUR small market ball-club was better than 28 other teams, and that they came within two games of defeating the best team in baseball. I believe they call that bittersweet.

I wanted to thank all of you that have followed the blog, conversed with us on social media, or both. You can expect offseason and Hot-Stove content leading into the 2021 season, among other things. Y’all are the best, thank you for all that! Also, thank you to the Tampa Bay Rays for putting together a magical season.

Pitchers and catchers report in a little over 3-1/2 months, Rays Up!

In addendum

…As if this year wasn’t f****d up enough:

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TNWN: Rays look to force a Game 7 on Tuesday

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Globe Life Field, home of the Texas Rangers and the 2020 World Series.

After one last off-day, the Tampa Bay Rays look to even the series at three games apiece and force one last ball game, when they face the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, in Arlington. The Dodgers have a three-games-to-two advantage over the Rays in the 2020 World Series.

The Rays are 5-1 in elimination games over the past two postseasons. Los Angeles, meanwhile, has won all three of its games in the 2020 postseason when they had a chance to close out the opposing team.

While Tyler Glasnow proved ineffective in his Sunday night start against the Dodgers — thus solidifying his position as the hard-hit% king of the postseason — the rest of Tampa Bay’s pitching staff kept Los Angeles in check across four scoreless frames on Sunday. Put another way, Diego Castillo, Aaron Loup, Ryan Sherriff, and Ryan Thompson proved that the Dodgers can be pitched to. And instead of trying to throw the nastiest pitches possible, resulting in whiffy K after whiffy K, the above mentioned four-headed beast forced contact and allowed the fielders behind them to gobble up balls put in play. Blake Snell, who will get the start on Tuesday, would be well served to take after the latter named four hurlers as opposed to Glasnow.

While the Rays might be down, they certainly are not out. Bear in mind one simple fact: neither Tampa Bay nor Los Angeles has strung together two consecutive wins in the 2020 World Series. The Rays have already proved they can get to Tony Gonsolin, and if they can win Tuesday night, they can force a game seven and push things back into coinflip territory.

Neil Solondz (Rays Radio) put things in perspective, writing,

It would be a tremendous accomplishment, especially considering the opponent. Los Angeles has led for all but the final play of game four for 27 consecutive innings. They’ve hit multiple homers in eight straight playoff games, scored at least four runs in every game of the World Series, and have gone a combined 55–22 between the regular season and postseason. All while being the top scoring team and run prevention team this year in MLB.

Of any team that could beat that Dodgers club two games in a row, it would be the Rays. Think about what they’ve done this year:

  • Had the best record in the American League (40–20), something that only previously happened in 2010.
  • Won not one but two winner-take-all playoff games, not including wildcard games, something they had done just once in all previous seasons combined.
  • Beat the Yankees in their first-ever playoff series against them.
  • Avenged last year’s loss in the ALDS to Houston by beating the Astros to advance to the World Series.
  • Won more World Series games than any previous Tampa Bay team.
  • Set an MLB record for HR in the postseason.
  • Had their third ever walk-off victory in the playoffs, and it came in a historic game four of the World Series.

Plus Randy Arozarena has had arguably the best postseason in the history of the game.

The hope is that two great chapters remain in this story, but it’s important to appreciate that, in the most trying of years, this already has been the most successful season the franchise has had.

The New What Next

Blake Snell got the start last Wednesday and looked great through the first 4-2/3 innings, holding the Dodgers hitless while striking out nine and walking two — including a perfect 10-pitch first inning. At one point he retired 10 straight batters, six via the strikeout. Yet, the left-hander’s demeanor changed after he walked Kiké Hernández on five pitches two outs in the fifth. Then four pitches later, Snell grooved a 77 mph over the inner third of the plate to Chris Taylor, who inside outed the ball and sent it to right-field for a two-run homer. Six pitches later his night was done after he walked Mookie Betts. Snell looked great until he didn’t, throwing 88 pitches (49 strikes, 56% strike rate) while coaxing 14 swinging strikes (27% SwStr%).

Tony Gonsolin allowed one run on a solo homer to Brandon Lowe and also issued a walk while serving as an opener in game two of the World Series. He struck out one. The 26-year-old threw 16 of his 29 pitches for strikes (55% strike rate) and recorded a first-pitch strike on four of the six batters he faced. The right-hander has now allowed eight earned runs in 7-2/3 postseason innings. He hasn’t had much success in that span, posting a 9.39 ERA and a 1.70 WHIP while walking 19.4% of opposing batters.

You can read about the series in our preview, while the starting lineup and Noteworthiness are below.

TNWN: Rays vs. Dodgers — a World Series preview

Rays 10/27/20 Starting Lineup

  1. Díaz DH
  2. Lowe 2B
  3. Arozarena LF
  4. Choi 1B
  5. Margot RF
  6. Wendle 3B
  7. Adames SS
  8. Kiermaier CF
  9. Zunino C

Noteworthiness

— From Neil’s lips to your ears: “A key for the Rays will be getting an early lead. in the last three games Los Angeles has scored in the first inning each time. Tampa Bay only led in game four when Brandon Lowe homered for a 5–4 advantage that didn’t last the next half inning, and on the game’s final play. Tampa Bay is 32–7 this year when scoring first (regular season and postseason combined).”

— Rays skipper Kevin Cash plans to be aggressive with the bullpen tonight. Neither Pete Fairbanks nor Nick Anderson pitched on Sunday, so they’ve both had two days off.

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LBWMF: Rays on the brink of elimination after falling 4-2

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Kiermaier needed to put the ball in play in the fourth inning, yet he did so in the ninth. (Photo Credit: Tampa Bay Rays)

Tyler Glasnow needed to put together an elite performance on Sunday, yet the right-hander was pulled after four runs and five innings. And while the Tampa Bay Rays put together good at-bats against Clayton Kershaw, they couldn’t catch up to the Dodgers, who took a first-inning lead and never looked back. When all was said and done, Kershaw and the ‘pen led the Dodgers to a 4-2 win over Tampa Bay in the fifth game of the 2020 World Series.

One shouldn’t question Glasnow’s stuff. Put simply, his fastball and curveball are elite. However, what could be questioned is his pitch selection and his perceived hesitation to lean on a third pitch, which he has been working on the last few offseasons. Those two things turned a decent outing into a frustrating one for Tampa Bay.

Mookie Betts kickstarted a first-inning rally with a double to left two batters into the game. Corey Seager followed by ripping an RBI single to right on a cement mixer left over the heart of the plate. It was the third straight game where Los Angeles took a first-inning lead.

Then in the second inning, Joc Pederson fell behind 1-2 before he drilled a 98.5 mph fastball for a 3-0 lead. Instead of trying to get Pederson to expand by throwing a curveball off the plate, Glasnow tried to overpower the outfielder on a high fastball. Unfortunately, the pitch wasn’t above the zone, and Pederson didn’t miss it.

Glasnow was able to bounce back and retire eight consecutive batters, while Tampa Bay got on the board against Kershaw in the third.

Kevin Kiermaier beat out a chopper to the first base side of the mound for an infield hit, before Yandy Diaz hit a one-out triple to right, eluding Betts to draw the Rays within two. Randy Arozarena followed with an RBI single to left to get the Rays within a run. It was Arozarena’s 27th postseason hit, setting a new Major League record.

Even though they had multiple opportunities to exact more damage — the Rays got the leadoff runner aboard in six of the nine innings — they ultimately went 1-7 wRISP and they, as Dave Wills would say, left a lot of chicken on the bone.

Glasnow retired the first two batters in the top half of the third inning, yet Muncy drilled a two-strike, center/center fastball to right-center, capping the scoring. It was the ninth home run allowed by Glasnow, a postseason record.

Tampa Bay had a chance to take the lead in the fourth inning. Manuel Margot walked, swiped second, and went to third when the responding throw went off Chris Taylor’s glove for an error. Then, after falling behind 0-2, Hunter Renfroe worked a free pass to put runners at the corners with no outs. However, Joey Wendle popped out to short and Willy Adames struck out. Margot tried to spark some offense with Kiermaier at the plate — he attempted to steal home and was thrown out by a hair. The play did not work, yet let’s be honest: given that Kiermaier has slashed .224 BA/.255 OBP/.490 SLG/.745 OPS with a 29% strikeout rate during the offseason, the odds were stacked against him to come up in the clutch. Margot tried to do what he instinctively thought Kiermaier couldn’t or wouldn’t — plate an important run and rattle Kershaw.

Escaping the jam enabled Kershaw to begin a stretch where he retired seven consecutive batters on just 21 pitches. For whatever reason, the left-hander was lifted in the sixth inning much to the chagrin of the Dodgers fans in attendance who booed Dave Roberts’ decision. Roberts called upon Dustin May.

Even though Tampa Bay tagged May in his previous outing, the Carrot Top-like hurler made quick work the next four batters. May did get into trouble after Kiermaier singled to left to open the eighth, yet pinch-hitter Yoshi Tsutsugo flew out to left. Kevin Cash called upon Ji-Man Choi to pinch hit for Yandy Diaz, but Roberts called on southpaw Victor Gonzalez. In so doing, Mike Brosseau hit for Choi instead. Kiermaier moved into second on a wild pitch while Brosseau reached on a free pass in a nine-pitch at-bat, bringing Arozarena to the plate. Yet RAAAAAAAANDY flew out to center, as did Brandon Lowe on the first pitch of his at-bat.

Meanwhile, Aaron Loup got two outs while Diego Castillo collected four before Ryan Sherriff hurled a perfect eighth inning, allowing Tampa Bay to hang around. Ryan Thompson worked around a walk in a scoreless ninth.

Finally, Blake Treinen got the save opportunity in the bottom of the ninth — his third consecutive day of work. Margot singled to start the frame, however, Austin Meadows went down swinging, Wendle flew out to center, and Adames struck out to end the game.

After a previously scheduled off-day, Blake Snell will get the start in game six on Tuesday. It marks the third elimination game for Tampa Bay this postseason. The Rays have won the other two.

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